Abu Obaidah al-Shishani

Abu Obaidah al-Shishani (11 October 1972-24 June 2005) was a senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a terrorist group in Iraq commanded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Obaidah was assassinated in Operation Stingray in 2005.

Biography
Abu Obaidah al-Shishani was born on 11 October 1972 in Tolstoy-Yurt in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR of the Soviet Union (present-day Chechnya, Russia) to a Muslim Chechen family. His real name is speculated to be Hamza Farrukhov Aliyevich, although his Russian passport indicates that his name is actually Umar Hamzat Farakov. He took on the kunya (Islamic nom de guerre "Abu Obaidah al-Shishani") in 1996 while fighting Russia in the First Chechen War alongside Chechen independence activists, and he was one of the leaders who preached Islamism rather than nationalism. In 2003, during the Second Chechen War, he fled to Iraq to join al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and escape the turmoil in Chechnya. Abu Obaidah was successful in moving into Iraq with some rubles, and he became a terrorist leader under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He led a unit of suicide bombers, and paid for their equipment. After a June 2005 suicide bombing killed 31 people in Baghdad, the Iraqi Army and US Army teamed up to take him out in "Operation Stingray".

On 24 June 2005, Abu Obaidah al-Shishani was assassinated in his apartment in Downtown Baghdad by an American sniper. He was shot from 240 feet, and he was hit in the chest while watching the television. His death was a small step forwards in combatting Baghdadi terrorism.